“The series as a whole seems destined to become one of the best in the genre.”
—West Coast Review of Books

In this 20,000-word novelette set in the main character through-line of the Door Into... novels, the first man in a thousand years to bear the Blue Flame of Power, Herewiss s'Hearn, is now happily married to King Freelorn of Arlen, their lover Segnbora tai-Enraesi, the fire elemental Sunspark and the dragon Hasai. But Herewiss tells none of them why (at a most delicate moment) he must undertake a clandestine mission to the city of Darthis.

His reasons are secret: his intentions desperate. So why does Herewiss wind up spending his whole visit in a dive bar? Only the Stuck Pig's indefatigable bouncer, Iras, can learn the reason why... and when she does, she finds herself caught up in a kind of tavern brawl that no one's ever imagined.

"The Levin-Gad" is the first of five novelettes spanning the years between Book 3 of the Tale of the Five, The Door Into Sunset, and the forthcoming The Door Into Starlight.

Reader advisory: Like the rest of the works in the Tale of the Five series, this work contains adult / mature themes and situations set in a sexually diverse and inclusive culture. (...And in this case, mixed drinks of a most dubious nature.)